The Battle of Waterloo and The Royal Scots Greys and Sergeant Charles Ewart

At around 2pm Major General Ponsonby’s Union Brigade of heavy dragoons (the 1st Royal Dragoons, 2nd Royal Scots Greys and 6th Inniskilling Dragoons) charged D’Erlon’s infantry columns as they reached the British line.

As the Greys passed the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, the Gordons attempted to advance with them, holding the trooper’ stirrups.

The charge built up momentum and the British “Heavies” launched themselves on the French infantry, the Greys shouting “Scotland for ever”.

Sergeant Charles Ewart of the Greys rode at the eagle bearer of the 45th Infantry. He cut down the four escorts and the eagle bearer and bore the eagle away.

The Union Brigade cut through the French and, now out of control, continued the charge up the far incline to the French guns, where they sabred numbers of gunners in Ney’s battery. The British were counter-attacked by French Lancers and suffered such heavy casualties as to eliminate the brigade from the battle. The brigade commander General Ponsonby was killed.

As the Duke of Wellington grumblingly complained “the British cavalry never know when to stop charging”.

The Greys adopted the captured French eagle as the regiment’s badge. It is still the badge of the present regiment: the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

The Emperor Napoleon is said to have commented of the regiment, “Ah ces terribles chevaux gris”.
The rest of the British Army wryly gave the Scots Greys the nickname of “the Bird Catchers”.
The Royal Dragoons also captured an eagle during the charge, that of the 105th Regiment.

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

The 5 cm PaK 38 (L/60) (5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 38 (L/60)) was a German anti-tank gun of 50 mm calibre. It was developed in 1938 by Rheinmetall-Borsig AG as a successor to the 37 mm PaK 36, and was in turn followed by the 75 mm PaK 40.

Le Fh18 Howitzer - WGS Kit

Pendraken figures

The 10.5 cm leFH 18 was the standard divisional field howitzer used by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was designed and developed by Rheinmetall in 1929-30 and entered service with the Wehrmacht in 1935. Generally it did not equip independent artillery battalions until after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Before 1938 the leFH 18 was exported to Hungary and Spain. 53 were also exported to Finland, where they were known as 105 H 33. 166 leFH were exported to Bulgaria in 1943 and 1944 (until February 1, 1944)

Pak 43 - WGS Kit

The anti-tank gun version of this KwK 43 L/71 was known as the PaK 43. This name was also applied to versions of this weapon mounted in various armored vehicles such as the tank destroyers Jagdpanther, Hornisse/Nashorn and Ferdinand/Elefant. The Nashorn was the first vehicle to carry the KwK/PaK 43 series of guns. The series included: PaK 43 (cruciform mount), PaK 43/41 (two-wheel split-trail carriage), PaK 43/1 (Nashorn), PaK 43/2 (Ferdinand/Elefant), PaK 43/3 and 43/4 (Jagdpanther) and KwK 43 (Tiger II).

Saturday, 18 December 2010

Returningtomycollection ofminiaturesofWWII,which I useregularlyin wargames, I presentto you someofmyGerman SPG's.

Have fun!

Wargames-South Miniatures - 1/144 Scale

The Hummel was designed in 1942 out of a need for mobile artillery support for the tank forces, the lack of which had first been felt during Operation Barbarossa. There were some self-propelled artillery vehicles already in service with the Wehrmacht at the time, but most were of limited value.

The first option looked at was to mount a 10.5 cm leFH17 howitzer on a Panzer III chassis, but this was rejected in favour of the same howitzer on a Panzer IV chassis. One prototype was built of this design.

This design was again rejected, this time in favour of a more powerful solution: mounting the 15 cm sFH 18 L/30 howitzer on the specially designed Geschützwagen III/IV, which took elements of both the Panzer III (driving and steering system) and Panzer IV chassis (suspension and engine). The same chassis was also used for the Nashorn tank destroyer.

The Hummel had an open-topped lightly armoured fighting compartment at the back of the vehicle which housed both the howitzer and the crew. The engine was moved to the centre of the vehicle to make room for this compartment. Late model Hummels had a slightly redesigned driver compartment and front superstructure, to offer more room to the radio operator and driver.

SdKfz 164 Hornisse / Nashorn Tank Destroyer

Dragon kits - 1/144

The mammoth SdKfz 164 was an imposing tank destroying platform for Germany in the Second World War. With the obsolete Panzer III and Panzer IV chassis still in inventory or on production lines, it was decided to put them to better use by modifying them to become self-propelled guns mounting the powerful 88mm PaK 43 series. To accomplish this, the hull was lengthened to accommodate the new gun and the engine relocated while armor was removed in an effort to keep the vehicles weight at a respectable level.

The main gun was fitted into a high superstructure which provided the vehicle with a tall profile and its turretless design meant that the entire vehicle would have to be turned in order to engage the enemy. The turret also offered no protection to the firing crew and commander from above or to the rear as it was an open-top design. As such, crews had to resort to battlefield modifications to keep the elements or shrapnel out and were issued small arms and a machine gun for self-defense work. Power was derived from a Maybach HL 12-cylinder engine producing some 300 horsepower and a crew of five personnel could man the system with the driver being the only one to benefit from any type of armor protection.

In its initial form, the SdKfz 164 appeared with the designation of "Hornisse" (meaning "Hornet") though this was later changed at Hitler's request with the name of "Nashorn" (meaning "Rhinoceros") as he required a more imposing name attached to the vehicle. Early Hornisse models were fitted with the standard PaK 43 L/71 main gun while later Nashorn models sported the new and improved PaK 43/1 L/71 occurring from 1944 onwards. Both vehicles were similarly designed and constructed apart from their main armament.

Once in combat, the SdKfz 164 proved its worth against Soviet armor of all classifications, engaging and defeating them some 2,000 to 4,000 meters away. After action reports dictated how the sheer velocity of the 88mm round could simply tear apart the Soviet T-34s like paper with a single direct hit. Mobility of the system did play a part in its usefulness however and the tank destroyer most always performed better when dug into a prepared position. The Hornisse/Nashorn series would later be superceded by the purpose-built Jagdpanther and Jagdpanzer tank-killing designs.